Who Is the Master

As I sit amidst my clutter I think back 40 years to when a younger me with a lot less clutter came to a realization. It came from an analysis of my wants and desires versus a list of things keeping me from them. At that time I was working on Master/Slave architecture so my own thinking was about myself being a master, as influenced by the song “It’s My Life”, but was I really?

Perhaps I have some Gypsy blood in me. With ancestral roots in Siberia and Asia and just the fact that my mother was born in Mongolia, my father in China and I in the Philippine Islands is enough to understand my wanderlust. Yet the furthest I have been since coming here to the lower 48 is our 50th state, Hawaii. To the best of my knowledge I have been to 49 of our 50 states and nearly made it to Alaska when my wife and I got as far North as Prince Rupert. At that point Ketchican was within 100 miles.

It seemed to me back in 1970’s that I was rooted in a rental house with furniture and books and history. They all wanted me to care for them. These things were keeping me from my adventures. Thank God I had no pets! My realization became clear. These things were being MY master! It was I who was a slave to those belongings. “We Gotta Get Out of This Place” sounded loudly in my mind, heart and soul!

With that realization I got rid of nearly everything in my life. I even burned my excess underwear in the fireplace! Yes there was history I got rid of at that time thinking what I could remember would be good enough, which I greatly regret. Still I was a rebel and not sticking around any more masters other than me. I quit my job, got in my yellow Barracuda convertible with what remained of “MY” belongings and drove into the sunshine with “Take This Job and Shove It” playing loudly on the stereo and my long hair being blown back by the wind. It was good to know who is the master!